Dragons Aliens
by dragonprincess1988
Summary: Only in Gotham could a bunch of non-super-powered vigilantes be expected to fight dragons.


Nightwing hesitated as he looked back towards his companion, clearly unsure of what to do. "Go!" Red Hood shouted at him before Dick could move closer to him. Jason probably would have added a shooing motion if he wasn't too busy trying to stem the bleeding from his chest wound. "I mean it! Go, you idiot!"

Nightwing reluctantly shot off a grappling line, and tried to catch up with the dragon that they had been fighting. If Dick was in the mood to make jokes he'd probably say something about how only in Gotham could a bunch of non-super-powered vigilantes be expected to fight dragons. Sure, they were highly advanced aliens from another world, but who cared what they actually were when they looked like picture perfect mythological creatures.

Nightwing swung past another building which had clearly taken a hit from the dragon's armored tail. "Oracle, I'm going to need you to send someone to my previous location."

"Why?"

Nightwing tried valiantly not to roll his eyes at her tone, but failed miserably. "Red Hood got taken out. I'm not sure how badly he's injured, but he obviously couldn't continue. I'm still trailing the dragon."

Oracle sighed, mostly to herself. She hadn't been thrilled with the idea of bringing in Red Hood, but with Batman and Robin preoccupied, and most of the other heroes off-world dealing with some other catastrophe, they didn't have too many other options. "And who exactly do you expect me to send? Everyone, with the exception of you, is hurt."

Nightwing dodged some falling debris as he rounded another crumbling building. At least he was getting closer. "I don't know, but send someone. He's bleeding out!"

Oracle heaved another large sigh. "I'll see what I can do, and you be careful, okay?"

Dick grunted as a piece of brick from one of the surrounding buildings hit him. "Yeah, I'm working on it. N out."

Nightwing spotted the dragon when it stopped at what could only be described as the thing's nest, and he had to wonder why such an advanced alien race would invade their world just to capture children. It didn't make any sense. That was until he saw the dragon lift the little blonde child it had abducted into the air, obviously intent on feeding her to its young.

XYZXYZ

Red Robin and Red Arrow stumbled their way to the roof, taking the stairs as quickly as possible, while trying to hide how injured they both were from each other. When they got to the door, only to find it barricaded with debris from the earlier attack, they both groaned as they started to heave away the detritus blocking their way. Red Arrow paused while moving a particularly large piece of wood out of the way. "Wait, can't you just blow this stuff up or something?"

Red Robin shook his head. "I used the last of my explosives on the one that was two seconds away from eating you six blocks back."

Roy sighed as he resumed his efforts to unbarricade the door. "I bet Batman would have more explosives."

Tim glared at him, and probably would have hit him if he wasn't trying to conserve his energy for the long and exhausting journey back down the stairs with Jason in hand. "Shut up and help me move this." The two of them worked together in silence to finish unblocking the door.

When they finally managed to pull open the door, both of them sighed in relief-at least until they saw Red Hood laying unconscious too far away for comfort, and with too much blood caked on him. They shuffled their way over to him, and began examining how bad the damage really was. Red Robin knelt down, wincing at the pain it caused him, while Red Arrow kept his gaze and arrow trained on the sky. The last thing that either of them needed right now was to be caught off guard by another dragon.

Red Robin pulled out his field first-aid kit, and began wrapping various parts of Jason's body in gauze. The field kit didn't have everything they needed in it, but it had enough to make transporting Red Hood easier and safer. After the chest wound was cleaned and wrapped, Tim moved onto the large gash on Jason's left leg. It was deep, but he didn't think that it would effect Jason's ability to walk in the long run. There were a few minor lacerations and various bruises that might signify more serious injury, but there was nothing more Red Robin or Red Arrow could do while they were out in the open on this rooftop; so, after Tim finished with the worst of the still-bleeding wounds covering Jason's body, he and Roy hefted Jason into their arms and started making their way back down the stairs.

"I really hope we don't run into anymore dragons on our way back, 'cause I really don't think that either of us is in any condition to take them on," Roy growled once they reached the first landing.

"They're a highly advanced species from another planet. Therefore, they're aliens...not dragons." Tim grunted in reply, as he tried to get a better grip on Jason, before they started the long trek down the next flight of stairs.

Roy glared at him. "They fly, they have claws, they have two inch spikes on the end of their tails...tails, Tim. They look like giant winged lizards, I'm pretty sure I saw one breathe fire, and they've got armored scales like a damn tank. They're dragons, Tim...just accept it already."

Tim was about to argue, but instead hissed as Jason's head hit against his already injured shoulder. "Fine, you win. Let's just get him out of here before something else happens."

Roy nodded as he took more of Jason's weight. "Hey, only four more flights of stairs to go."

Tim glared at him from behind the mask, but he was sure that Roy could see it anyway. "Thanks for reminding me."

XYZXYZ

Nightwing didn't have a whole lot of options left to get the rest of the children away from the dragons. He had used the last of his exploding batarangs to get the little blonde girl out of the one dragon's claws. He had only managed to snatch her out of the air when the dragon released her by using the dragon's head as a lamp post, and he wasn't really willing to get that close to those giant teeth again if he could help it. The fact was, that if he was going to pull this off and manage to rescue all of the kids, Nightwing needed help, but there was literally no one left to call. Even their backup had been taken out. As far as Dick knew, Jason was still back there bleeding out. Babs had said that she sent Roy and Tim to take care of him, but there was no way of knowing if they had actually made it. After all, that rooftop wasn't in the best of shape when he'd left, and neither were they, the last he'd heard.

Dick had found a relatively safe place to stash the kids he'd already rescued before rushing back into the fray. As he moved back to the rooftops to find his next target, Nightwing hoped that there was still someone out there who wasn't too injured to help. "O, I need someone now! I can't save all of these kids by myself. Tell me there's someone!"

"I'm trying to find someone, but I don't know if there is anyone, Dick. I'll send out a request on an open line, but for right now all I can tell you to do is save as many as you can." When she spoke, he could hear Babs typing furiously, but he still didn't miss the remorse in her voice...electronic or not.

"I...yeah, Babs, okay..." Dick cut the connection after that. They both knew that there was no way he could save all of them-not by himself, but he refused to think about that right now. Right now, he had to take on an extremely large, fire-breathing dragon with nothing but a few smoke pellets and a grappling hook. Nightwing forced a smirk onto his face and yelled. "This ought to be fun."

XYZXYZ

Roy and Tim had finally made it to the ground floor when they got the call that Nightwing was in need of help. They glanced at each other for a moment, before Red Arrow took all of Jason's weight. "I'll take him. You go help Nightwing."

Red Robin shook his head, and moved to take Jason off of Red Arrow. "I'm completely out supplies. All I have left is my grapple and some zip strips, and I don't think that shooting the grapple at the fire breathing dragons is going to do much, and I really doubt that the zip strips will be useful at all. You, however, still have arrows left. I'll take him. You go."

Red Arrow pulled away, and gave Tim a stern look. "Nah, I don't think you'll be able to carry his bulk on your own-at least, not all the way back to the cave from here. If you weren't injured, maybe, but I seriously doubt it with that shoulder. Plus, I'm more injured than you are-at least, I think I am. It's hard to tell with you Bats. I'll take unconscious boy here back home. You take my arrows and go help Dick. I've got a knife or two on me, and it's not like I can use the bow while dragging sleepy over here along."

Red Robin looked extremely reluctant to follow that order, but he couldn't really argue with any of Roy's points. That didn't, however, mean that he wasn't going to try. "So, you think that my shoulder is too bad off to carry him, but not bad enough to use your bow?"

Red Arrow nodded at him. "Exactly. Now, get going. Nightwing needs you."

Red Robin grabbed the arrows off of Red Arrow, and then thought of something. "Wait, Jason..."

"What about deadweight here?" Roy interjected as he pulled Jason into a fireman's carry.

Tim rolled his eyes behind his mask, even though Roy couldn't see it. "He probably has more supplies on him, and plenty of knives too. I know he got rid of the guns the moment that he realized that the bullets just bounce off of the dragons' hides-and make everything far more dangerous than it needs to be-but he should still have all of his other weapons. We could both take some. It's not like he's using them right now anyway."

Roy smirked at him. "Sometimes I really love that freaky brain of yours."

Tim raised an eyebrow at him. "Thanks, I think. Now set him down so I can search him."

Red Arrow gently set him down, so that he wouldn't jar any of Jason's injuries any worse than they already had. After the two of them stripped Jason of his weapons and supplies-which they both wished he had had more of-they split the weaponry and headed off in opposite directions.

"Red Robin to Oracle."

"Go ahead, Red."

"Tell Nightwing I'm on my way. RR out."

XYZXYZ

Nightwing aimed straight for the dragon's gray, scale-covered arm, shot his grapple gun, and swung right between the opened mouths of the younger dragons and the child falling through the air. He managed to catch the terrified boy, and set him safely on the ground. Nightwing managed to tell him where to run to, but before he could do much else, the mother dragon-at least he assumed it was the mother dragon-knocked him off his feet, and gathered him into her clawed clutches. She dug her talons into his torso, and began lifting him into the air. Nightwing stared directly into her golden eyes as she opened her mouth and tilted her head back. Dick would have laughed if it wouldn't have made him wheeze and increase the amount of blood he was losing from the puncture wounds on his torso from her claws. It figured that out of everything in Gotham that could have possibly killed him, he was going to get eaten by a dragon...'cause that's just how his life worked.

Before he could think more about it, however, a red handled throwing knife came flying out of nowhere, and embedded itself directly in the golden eye Dick had been staring at. The dragon let out a loud guttural cry of pain and dropped Nightwing. Dick was just about to curse his luck of escaping big mama only to be fed to the younger dragons when he felt something small, lithe, and hard slam into him. He ignored the pain that lanced through his entire body at the impact, and made sure to brace himself for their landing. They landed on the ground, and rolled to their feet. Nightwing had already moved into a defensive position before he realized what, or more accurately, who had hit him. "You're a sight for sore eyes, little brother."

Red Robin smirked at him as he tossed Nightwing a few supplies. "What is it with you and your friends trying to become dinner for these guys?"

Nightwing shrugged, but managed to suppress his wince at the pain it caused. "We can't help that we're apparently tasty."

Red Robin stared at him blankly as he silently checked Dick over for serious injuries. He didn't seem to have any that needed to be taken care of immediately, but if they made it out of this, Tim was going to demand that Dick let Alfred tend to all of his wounds. "Uh huh, sure that's it. So, what's the plan?"

Nightwing clenched his jaw, and was thankful that Tim didn't seem hellbent on fixing him up right then and there. "Save as many kids as possible. I've found a relatively safe place for them to go once I've rescued them, but who knows how long that will remain the case."

Red Robin nodded, and glanced around. "I assume that building over there is your safe heaven." At Dick's nod, Tim continued. "Okay, well, now that we've replenished some of our supplies and gathered more weapons, this should be slightly easier. I'll take the nests on the east side. You keep working over here." They both turned to head in their appointed directions, but Tim stopped Dick with a hand on his shoulder. "And Nightwing, try not to turn into dragon chow. I really don't feel like explaining that one to B."

Nightwing smirked at him. "You too, little brother, you too."

They went their separate ways, attacking each of the nests systematically. The dragons' scales were too hard to penetrate, but that didn't mean that they didn't have weakness. Unfortunately, getting close enough to take out their eyes was too dangerous, but the fleshy pads of their feet and underbellies were far less protected than the rest of their armored scaled hides. Their wings were pretty much unprotected, as well, which gave them something to work with, at least. It was still extremely dangerous, especially with the dragons' spiked tails whipping around, but neither Nightwing nor Red Robin had any intention of stopping. They both knew that there was still no one to save everyone, but the probability of surviving this encounter was at least marginally better now that they both had more weapons.

XYZXYZ

Red Arrow was reduced to stealing a car in order to get Red Hood back to the cave, and Roy was pretty sure that that would have made Jason laugh, had he been conscious. Roy carried Jason from the car to the cave, and set him down on a medical cot where Alfred was already waiting for them. "I have this under control, sir. I suggest you hurry. Master Timothy will require your help. I'm sure you know your way to the weapons locker."

Roy nodded numbly as he walked away. Once he had the weapons locker open, he paused, and wondered when the Bats had decided to add flamethrowers to their arsenal. He shook his head, and focused on grabbing as many explosives as he could carry. Once he finished raiding the Bats' weapons locker, he got on one of their bikes, and sped out of the cave. Sometimes Roy really appreciated their excessive amounts of backups.

"O, I need Red Robin's and Nightwing's location."

XYZXYZ

Roy hadn't been gone long when Jason finally awoke. It seemed he took a blow to the head-although Alfred wasn't sure by what-but it was clearly something heavy enough or strong enough to crack his red mask. "Easy, young sir, you're alright."

Jason blinked a few times. "Alfred, what happened?"

"You lost quite a bit of blood, sir."

Jason rolled off of the cot, and swayed a little before steadying himself. "Well, thanks for patching me up, but I better get back out there."

Alfred gave him one of his sterner glares. "You need rest. You most likely have a concussion."

Jason stared back at him. It was true that Alfred glares were always way more frightening than Bat glares, but that didn't change the fact that he was still needed out there. "Look, Alfred, I appreciate your concern. I really do...but you know for a fact that they aren't going to be able to rescue all of those kids themselves. Plus, I'm the best with explosives."

Alfred sighed, and gave a curt nod. "I expect you to come back and rest, Master Jason."

Jason smirked at him as he moved to grab his leather jacket. "Yeah, we'll see about that, Alfie." As Jason pulled on his jacket he noticed that it was significantly lighter than before. "Do I even want to ask about what happened to all of my stuff?"

Alfred stared at him blankly. "I'm sure the others will return it to you once this is all over."

Jason sighed to himself, and pulled out one of his red domino masks when he saw how badly damaged his full face mask was. "Yeah, I'm just gonna go restock, and get out of here. See ya, Alfie."

XYZXYZ

As Tim managed to get close enough to the fourth nest to place the explosives, he thought about thanking Jason for being such a pyromaniac. It was so much easier to just blow the nest up, grab the kids, and then deal with the parent dragons separately. Although, the more he did that the more the parent dragons were ganging up on him. That would soon become a problem. He could really use some help right about now, but he knew that that wasn't going to happen. Nightwing was busy dealing with his own set of nest-dwelling monsters, and everyone else was...well, as far as Tim knew, there was no one else. He didn't even know if Roy had managed to get Jason back to the cave, but he really couldn't be concerned about that right now. A large dragon-probably female, if coloration was anything to go on-landed in front of him, and two larger-most likely male-dragons landed behind him. Tim really hoped that the others were okay, because he certainly wasn't. He congratulated himself on the fact that, at least, he had managed to get the child he had been saving out of the danger zone before he was surrounded.

Tim rolled out of the way of one vicious tail swipe only to be knocked aside by another. The spikes pierced through his armor, and embedded themselves in his thigh. Before he even had time to scream, the dragon whipped it's tail away, causing even more pain to flare through the injury, as Tim was knocked away. Tim grabbed his leg, and limped his way over to hide behind some debris. He needed to get a bandage around the wound before he bled to death. He was pretty sure none of the dragons had seen where he'd fallen, which gave him enough time to wrap the wound. Tim was just finishing when he heard one of the dragons closing in on him. Before he could get to any of his weapons, though, there was another sound of something flying through the air, and the dragon let out a screeching whine of pain. Tim moved as quickly as he could to another pile of rubble as he caught sight of Red Arrow shooting arrows at the dragons to give him cover.

Red Arrow jumped down to where Red Robin was hiding. "Fancy meeting you here."

Red Robin gritted his teeth against the pain shooting up through his thigh. "Yeah, thanks for the save."

Red Arrow stared down at the bloody bandage covering Red Robin's leg. "Don't mention it. How's the leg?"

Red Robin tied another bandage around it, and stood. "It's fine. I can walk, so keep moving."

Red Arrow stared at him for a moment-not really trusting any of the Bats to take care of themselves-before nodding. "Okay, if you say so." The two of them moved on to their next target. There sure as hell were a lot of kids to save.

XYZXYZ

Nightwing heard another explosion go off across the way, and he had to wonder how the hell Tim was moving so fast. That had to have been at least the fourth nest that he'd blown up. Dick was suddenly cursing himself for using all of his explosives on clearing a way for the kids to get through. It sure as hell would have made his job easier if he hadn't, but he knew better than to wish he had something in a fight, as opposed to just working with what he did have, so he did another turn in mid air-ignoring the pain that laced through his torso-and landed on the dragon's wing. He thrust his knife into the paper-thin, leathery skin, and let himself fall down to the dragon's arm where he quickly grabbed the child who was dangling precariously from one claw, and flipped his way down to the ground. Smiling at the terrified child, Nightwing quickly showed him where to go, and moved onto the next nest.

This one was protected by four adult dragons. Apparently whatever Tim was doing over there was effective enough to make them all cautious enough to stick together, and while that signified that they were at least accomplishing something, it also made their task just that much harder. Dick dodged, rolled, and flipped away from the tails flying towards him, shot a grapple hook directly into one of the dragons eyes, and spun away from the swipe of claws coming for him. This nest had six children in it trying to fight off the younger dragons. He had to hand it to Gotham street kids. They were holding their own pretty well, all things considered.

Nightwing knew that he needed to find a way to draw the parent dragons away before he could even hope to get all six of the kids out of the nest, but his options for a diversion were limited at best. Before Nightwing could work himself up over it, though, he heard a large explosion go off somewhere to his left. It was far too close to be one of Tim's. Nightwing had no idea what the hell was going on, but all of a sudden one of the dragons tails was on fire. At first he thought it was just a new dragon trick that he hadn't encountered until now, but then he caught sight a familiar leather jacket. Nightwing couldn't help but release his sigh of relief. "Aren't you supposed to be resting? The last I saw you, you had a giant tear in your chest."

Red Hood laughed as he tossed another explosive directly into the mouth of another parent dragon. "I did rest, and now I'm here saving your ass. Talk about ungrateful."

Nightwing smiled as he dodged another tail strike from another dragon. "I'm grateful...trust me, I'm grateful. It's just that...well, that injury looked really bad."

Red Hood shrugged, and then flipped over the downed dragon's head. "Yeah, well, I'm fine, so let it go."

Nightwing didn't believe him...not for a second, but now wasn't the time. "See if you can draw them away. There are six kids in that nest, and I'm not sure how much longer they can keep fighting the younger dragons."

Red Hood smirked. "Gotta love street kids." He turned his attention to the dragons swarming around the nest. "Alright, uglies, let's dance." He laid down some smaller explosives to get their attention as Nightwing headed straight for the nest.

"Alright, everyone without scales cover your nose and mouth and try not to breathe this stuff in. Nightwing threw down some knock-out gas pellets he'd gotten off of Tim earlier, and once the gas dissipated enough for the kids to be able to see, he started ushering them out of the nest. He wasn't sure how Jason was holding off all three adult dragons, but he could still hear him laughing, so Dick figured he was okay...at least for now.

XYZXYZ

Red Arrow dodged another swooping dive from an adult dragon. "They are really starting to get upset with us for blowing up their nests."

Red Robin dove out of the way of another swipe of claws and teeth. "They really should have thought about that before they started stealing children to feed to their young."

Red Arrow shot another arrow into the bottom of the foot of one of the dragons running towards Tim. "I could say something here about how they can't help what they eat."

Red Robin used a grapple line to get on top of the falling dragon, swung over to another one, and stabbed it's wing before jumping down onto the other wing and following suit. "I could say something here about Lian."

Red Arrow glared as he managed to get one dragon to attack another with it's tail. "Point taken. Now get down here and help me."

XYZXYZ

While Nightwing was busy with the kids, Jason was throwing shurikens directly at the dragons' eyes, and then got underneath them to slice through their underbellies. When he was finishing with the last one, however, one of the previous dragons managed to clip him with its claws, and Red Hood ended up underneath the dragon as it was falling. He was forced to back flip his way out from underneath the dragon before it crushed him, which, unfortunately, caused him to pop four of the stitches on his chest. Alfred was not going to be happy with him once this was all over. Red Hood ignored the wet trails of blood running down his chest, and soaking through his shirt as he ran over to help Nightwing with another nest. There weren't any children left in this one, so they just blew it up before moving on to the next one.

They ducked behind some detritus for a breather when Nightwing noticed the state of Red Hood's shirt. "You're bleeding."

"Way to state the obvious, idiot." Red hood moved to push past him.

Nightwing halted him with a hand on his shoulder, and gently but firmly pushed him back. "No, Jason, your chest is bleeding-a lot."

Red Hood glared at him from behind the mask. "Yeah, you check yourself lately? Don't think I missed those puncture wounds, and it looks like one of those bastards got your pretty face, so how about you just shut up and keep working?"

Nightwing sighed to himself. "At least let me bandage it?"

Red Hood shook his head. "We don't have time for that. Now get moving."

Before Nightwing could argue, Red Hood was running off in the direction of another nest. When Nightwing caught up to him, they both crouched close to the nest in order to avoid the gaze of the parent dragon a few yards away. "You're a stubborn idiot, you know that?" Nightwing whispered harshly.

"Shut up, and get the kids while I take out the mother dragon."

Nightwing was going to protest, and tell him that he was too hurt to take on the mother dragon all by himself, but before he got a chance, Red Hood was already gone. Nightwing shook his head, and got to work. It wouldn't do either of them any good for Jason to die for no reason.

XYZXYZ

Red Arrow forced Red Robin to the ground as one of the dragons began breathing fire over them. "So, I'm starting to think that only some of them can breathe fire."

Red Robin coughed beneath him. "And that knowledge helps us how?"

Roy shrugged as he rolled them away from the dragon's clawed foot trying to stomp them to death. "I don't know, but it sounded pertinent in my head."

Tim got to his feet, and grimaced at the pain it caused. "I'll keep that in mind. Got anymore arrows?"

Red Arrow shook his head as they ducked behind more rubble. "Nah, I'm out. What about explosives?"

Red Robin nodded curtly. "One, and we're gonna need it to get back to Nightwing's location. You?"

Red Arrow shook his head. "Used my last one on the dragon that tried to eat you two minutes ago."

Red Robin leaned back against the pile of rubble behind them for a moment. "Thanks for that, by the way, but I'm not really sure what we're going to do. I mean, we don't exactly have a lot to work with here."

Red Arrow shrugged, and heaved a large sigh. "Well, this should be fun then."

Red Robin nodded again, before pulling something out of his utility belt. "I've got six batarangs left. Aim for the eyes." He handed the batarangs to Red Arrow.

"And what are you going to do?" Roy took the batarangs reluctantly.

Red Robin smirked as he pulled out his bo staff and a throwing knife. "I'm going for their wings."

Red Arrow stared at him for a moment, clearly worried. "You sure? That leg is..."

"Fine...the leg is fine. I told you that. Now get going."

Red Robin took off in the direction of the dragon currently trying to smash everything in it's path to find them. "All of you Bats are the same, you know that? Well, I'm not carrying you back, I hope you know." Red Arrow really just hoped that they wouldn't have to carry him back.

XYZXYZ

Nightwing finished getting the rest of the children out of the area while Red Hood distracted the adults. Usually that was accomplished by blowing up the nests once everyone was clear. It was a good plan, and working well-at least until Red Hood had managed to get himself thrown halfway across the battlefield by one of the adults that he was taunting. Nightwing jumped off of the dragon he had just brought down, flipped midair, spun, turned, and then landed beside Red Hood. "Are you okay? I swear, it's like you're trying to get yourself killed."

Red Hood smirked at him, and held up a hand. "Wait for it...wait for it."

They both paused and watched the surrounding area. All at once a giant ring of explosions went off, circling around the adult dragons that were left. Due to the fact that all of them were in such an enclosed space, none of them were able to stretch out their wings to fly away, and escape the fires trying to consume them. Nightwing turned back to Red Hood and just stared at him for a moment. "I guess I should just be happy that you're on our side this time, huh?"

Red Hood shrugged, and visibly grimaced at the pain. "You should just be happy that it wasn't you who got tossed around like a rag doll."

Nightwing helped Red Hood to his feet. "Yeah, yeah, whiner. Come on, we've gotta go help Red Robin."

Red Hood took a moment to steady himself once he was back on his feet. "Why? Poor little Timmy sounds like he's doing just fine over there."

Nightwing glared at him. "Your choices are to lay here, and let me bandage you, or come help me help Tim, so what's it gonna be?"

Red Hood groaned as he started walking in the direction of the sounds of fighting. "Let's get going, oh, annoying one. We don't have all night."

XYZXYZ

Tim flew through the air, landed on one wing, slashed, and thrust his knife in different directions to cause the most damage, and then moved on, using his bo staff to launch himself onto the next dragon. Roy used the batarangs, shurikens, and knives he had left to blind the dragons, and then he started using whatever he could find lying around to throw at them. Once he ran out of things to use as projectile weapons, he just started making a nuisance out of himself to keep the dragons distracted. It was working moderately well, until some of the dragons started specifically targeting Tim, and the others had surrounded Roy. He was out of weapons, tired, and injured, and he knew there was no way he could hold his own against six adult dragons. It just wasn't possible. He dodged their attacks as well as he could, but he knew eventually, he was going to get too tired and one of them was going to get him. It was just inevitable.

He spun away from a swipe of claws, jumped out of the way of two different tail strikes, flipped backwards from the fire coming from the mouth of one of the dragons, sidestepped another set of claws, and ducked the gnashing teeth of another. Unfortunately, he was too slow to get away from the sixth dragon's piercing talons, and Roy fell to the ground with a terrible scream of agony as he clutched his bleeding ankle. It felt like fire running through his veins, and he was sure that he was going to pass out from the pain alone. Gasping, and trying to keep himself going, Red Arrow got to his feet-or at least tried to-before falling down again. He knew that the tendon had been severed, before he had even tried to stand. There was no way he was getting out of this one.

XYZXYZ

Tim could see that Roy was surrounded, but there was nothing he could do. He was still trying to keep from being eaten by the ones chasing him. He had to abandon his attack on the dragons' wings when they had managed to separate the two of them, and now Red Robin was back on the ground trying to get closer to Red Arrow, and only managing to get farther away. He ducked behind some pieces of fallen building, while he tried to find a way to Roy. There were too many dragons between the two of them, and too little time to close the distance. Before Tim could even think of a plan, he heard Red Arrow scream out in pain, and knew there was absolutely no way to save him.

XYZXYZ

Nightwing and Red Hood ran as fast as they could the moment they heard the scream. They weren't that far away. They couldn't be...they had been covering the distance between Tim's side of the battlefield and their own at a rapid pace, and they knew that they couldn't be that far away from where the scream had originated. If they could just get there in time, then...the thought evaporated in Dick's head the moment that he saw six dragons hovering around something in a giant circle, and five more searching for something else on the other side. Red Hood turned toward him with a very grime expression. "This can't be good."

Nightwing shook his head, and grabbed a hold of Red Hood's arm. "Give me half of your explosives, and then find out what the hell those other dragons are searching for. I'm going to go break up the little knitting session over there."

Red Hood nodded as he handed over the explosives. "Be careful, hell only knows what the fuck is going on over there."

Nightwing nodded, and decided not to dwell on what it meant that Jason, of all people, was showing concern. Clearly, this was not a good situation at all.

XYZXYZ

Roy dragged himself as close to a dragon's foot as he could get without getting stomped on, and then further back behind the thing's leg. The dragon he'd chosen to use as cover didn't seem to have any idea that it's prey was hiding a mere step behind it, and the others hadn't seemed to notice his little retreat, either. It was just pure luck that the one breathing fire had decreased the others' visibility, thus giving Roy a chance to figure out what the hell he was going to do next. He pulled out his field kit, and wrapped the ankle. He wasn't sure what good it would do, but he figured bleeding to death wasn't going to help his cause any.

Once he finished wrapping the ankle, Roy looked around for something...anything that he could use as a crutch to support himself. There wasn't anything close by, which was a bigger problem than normal, considering that the dragons were getting annoyed with waiting for him to come out, and started to push each other around in the circle. He knew that if they managed to push the one he was under enough, he'd either be seen, or worse, crushed. Roy tried to back away more, and find a way out of their little deadly circle, but he knew that he couldn't risk being seen. After all, there was no way he could make a run for it with his ankle the way it was.

Red Arrow didn't get a lot of time to think about it, though, because all of a sudden, explosions started going off all around him, and the dragons were running around like a bunch of wildebeests in a stampede. He quickly dragged himself out of the way of the rampaging beasts, and tried to find cover. He was just about to be crushed by a large clawed foot when a familiar black and blue blur swooped in, and swept him out of the way. "Hey, next time you want to rescue me, maybe you should try something that isn't going to get me trampled."

Nightwing set him down on a rooftop that was, surprisingly, still stable enough to support them. "Everyone's such a complainer today. Don't get turned into dragon chow...try not to get me trampled...don't blow up the nest while I'm still in it, idiot...man, doesn't anyone just say thank you anymore?"

Roy laughed, before remembering that Tim was still out there probably being eaten right at this moment. "Dick, you gotta go help Red Robin. He was being chased by five of them the last time that I saw him."

Nightwing moved to jump off the roof, but before a single foot left the ground a huge explosion went off not too far away from them, and they both heard a familiar voice yell, "Yeah, fry, you bastards!"

Nightwing turned back to Roy for a moment. "I think maybe Red Hood has it handled."

Red Arrow raised an eyebrow at him. "He's actually awake?"

Nightwing nodded. "Awake, and destructive."

Before the two of them could say anything further, they were joined by both Red Hood and Red Robin. "So, what are you two lazy asses doing?"

Roy glared at Red Hood. "Having a tea party. What the hell does it look like?"

Red Robin stepped between the two of them before an argument could break out. "Now that all of the dragons have been taken care of, I think that we should focus on how we're going to get all of those kids to a safer place, and then get all of us back home. I don't think any of us are in any shape to carry anyone else."

Nightwing surveyed the others, and then made an executive decision. "With the exception of Red Hood, I'm the least hurt out of all of us, and out of those two options, I'm the best with kids, so I'll round up the kids, and get them to the nearest functioning hospital, and then meet you guys back at the cave."

Red Arrow held up a hand to stop Nightwing from leaving. "Okay, one) how do you expect us to get back to the cave, and two) how the hell do you figure that you're the least hurt out of all of us?"

Nightwing raised an eyebrow at him. "Red Robin can figure it out. You can't even walk, and you're really going to question if I'm the least hurt here?"

Red Arrow shook his head. "Hey, I wasn't saying that I wasn't the most hurt. I'm just questioning if you're least hurt. After all, you've been out here the longest."

"Actually since he had to work to get here from New York, I've technically been out here longer, but that's not important. The important thing is to get the kids to the hospital, and Nightwing probably is the best equipped to do that right now, so go." Red Robin gestured for Nightwing to leave. "Red Hood is going to help me get Red Arrow down to the ground, and then we'll figure it out from there."

Red Hood stared at them blankly. "And why am I helping you carry the lame duck?"

Red Robin glared back at him. "Because we didn't just toss your body down five flights of stairs while you were unconscious, so you owe us."

Red Hood grunted as he threw Red Arrow's left arm over his shoulder. "Needy frickin' whiners."

Red Robin's glare only intensified at Red Hood's grumbling, but he let it go. "Alfred is going to have a long night ahead of him."

Red Hood huffed out a breath of annoyance. "That reminds me...I popped all of the stitches on my chest."

Red Robin glanced over at Red Hood. "Oh, he is not going to be pleased with you."

"Not at all," Red Arrow chimed in as they made their way to the ground level.

The End


End file.
